Merry Bloody Christmas

Family Photo
Family Photo, originally uploaded by m!les.

I apologize sincerely. I have no pictures from Christmas Day in Sioux Falls. I guess I’m just a dummy loser! I had forgotten it on the counter-top before we left, and that really sucks because it was a good time, with a good meal, and Holli even made it up for a little bit. I will hopefully get pictures up from Britt or someone else’s camera. With all those cameras there were a lot of bloody pictures taken.

Merry Christmas everyone! It was a good Christmas, I think. I normally don’t care much for this holiday. I think it’s that everyone makes such a huge deal ab0ut it, and it’s become such a commercial (.com) holiday, that I just get sick of it. I do, however, enjoy the family time and getting to see everyone and not having to do homework parts of it. It’s always the same crappy music and the same crappy commercials. But, enough about that.

There was Christmas Eve mass first. It was nice. There is always a nice assortment of musicians set to perform beforehand. This year Brenna and Sue did a duet, and Micaela and Lonie did also. Don’t worry, I have pictures. The before mass music is always a treat.

From there we went home quick. Then it was off to Grandma’s. Here is where the Rausch family gathers to eat, and talk, and open presents. Right before we got to Grandma’s, we went to Sue’s to get Grandma’s present. Then Bryce and Dan moved it into Grandma’s house. We got there, and just as soon as my shoes were off, I was told that I had to help Dad with his grilling. This was told to me in a sort of code phrase, which left me very confused. I thought it was code for something else, then we get there and he WAS grilling. What? But, then Bryce and Dan moved out Sue’s dishwasher. Ok. That’s cool. But I took pictures of it, obviously. Then Sue asked me to look at her pictures. She gets to the pictures of the dishwasher, shows it to me, and says, “Is that what your mom is getting for Christmas?” Oh no! Thinking fast, I say, “Yeah.” Then Sue says, “Does she know she’s getting that?” I say, “She’ll know soon enough.” and then I quickly change the subject. I grabbed Bryce and Dan, told them what’s what, and Bryce accused me of having no Christmas spirit. Truth be told, I was trey close to ruining Christmas.

We ate, and enjoyed it. We talked, then we discovered David in the living room, and took some funny pictures. He looked like he was dead, so we added some flowers and held a vigil for him. The best part was when he woke up. He slowly comes around, having no idea what was going on, rubs his eyes, sits up, and says, “Hey.” Then the presents.

I got some nice things from Sue and Karen. Sue got me the Chronic-what-cles of Narnia box set, and Karen got me socks and an ornament. We brought Grandma’s present up, assembled it, and moved stuff around. Then we took about 30 family photos, both for the Val Rausch group and the whole dang family. That was complicated. I think that next year, if we do that, we should get someone from Paul and Leanne’s place to take it. Then we listened to an interview with Santa, and then we headed home.

At home I witnessed the greatest double-cross ever. My mom convinced my sister Brenna that Molly was getting a camera. She then had Brenna “let slip” to Molly that she was getting a guitar. So, Molly thought she already knew what she was getting, and wouldn’t be looking anymore. Then comes Christmas, and Molly goes and gets her present which is a trumpet, and Brenna got the camera. Neither of the girls had any idea even though both of them thought they knew what they were getting. It was a stroke of genius that made me proud of my mother. I snapped a picture of the girls to commemorate.

The next day we headed to Sioux Falls for the Miles Family gathering. Bryce came seperate, with Lindsey, a bit later, so it was me and the Wiese girls, hanging out. There were a lot of questions about Holli, and then there were questions about Trevor, Britt’s (boy)friend, and then there were questions about Heather, Dirk’s girlfriend, and a couple questions about Jesse, Molly’s boyfriend. As luck would have it, the family would meet both Holli and Heather in no time.

We had a great meal: steak and lobster and potato. Then a dog showed up, and everyone went nuts. Karin was trying very hard to get everyone to keep it outside, but everyone was trying very hard to get it into the house. This dog was small, but solid (fat), and we eventually pitched it back into the snow. Then we began opening presents, and then I hear, “Are you going to say ‘Hi’ to her?” Holli was there. So I rushed to her side to help taper the flow of relatives. There were a ton of pictures taken, presents opened, and then homemade ice cream.

Then at 9:30, Bryce, Lindsey, Dirk, Heather, Me, and Holli traveled to Century Theatres to watch The Producers. Apparently there was some confusion about the movie. Bryce and Lindsey thought that Dirk had reserved tickets for them to see The Producers, otherwise they would have wanted to go to King Kong, but their ticket’s said “Dirk” on them, which was coincidentally the cashier’s name also. As it was, I got to meet the Gregg family. I won’t lie; I was very nervous. There was Larry, Carol, Aunt Gayle, Adam, Cari, Marissa, and Jared. Thanks to the internet, I had a pretty good idea of what they people looked like before I met them.

I enjoyed the movie, and I think that Holli did, too. Britty was excited to see it, but she missed most of it because she fell asleep. I think Dirk and Heather enjoyed it, but I don’t think the movie was really Bryce and Lindsey’s style. It’s alright. It was foggy out, so the travel back to the house was slow. I said goodbye to Holli, and I told her to call me or Bryce when she got back. So, I stayed up, talking with Dirk about movies, until he went to bed. She called, all was good, went to bed, and then woke back up.

The day after Christmas is THE DAY that people go to the stores to return presents or spend more money. I set out with exactly that intent. We hit up the mall hardcore, playing the name game. I didn’t do so well this time, but it’s always nice to introduce more people to the game. I didn’t buy much at the mall. I did get a new cologne, though, with Britty’s help. From there we ate at HuHot. It was good. I like HuHot. Apparently you’re not supposed to get more than one bowl at a time, so I did that my second time up. From there we went to Scheel’s, where Britt got snowpants. From there it was to Best Buy. At Best Buy I got rechargeable batteries for my digital camera, finally, so I think my digital camera upgrades and accessories are probably done. From there we went to Petco, where we got to watch some fantastic ferret fighting. I hate the smell of dog, so I spent my time in the bird cage pretending that I knew everyone’s name. “Skittles, don’t bite that. Leave it alone, Skittles.”

Then we drove home, very slowly, in the fog. Mom kept calling, so the last time that she did, all we did was scream into the phone. Finally home, we unpacked and just hung out until eventually everyone left or went to sleep. All in all, it was a good Christmas.

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